Sunnyvale Apartment questions (Mountain View, Cupertino, Fair Oaks: apartment complex, rent, townhome)

[SMAD]

Hi,

My husband and I just got back from a visit to Mountain View/Sunnyvale this past weekend. I am transfering there for my job and would like to be close to W Middlefield Road & Ellis. We found 3 apartments that we like around the 101 and N Fair Oaks Road in Sunnyvale. We got back home and looked up some reviews on these places and found that there were complaints about the management and some reports of muggings and theft etc. that fell on deaf ears. One other place we saw near El Camino Real and S Fair Oaks had alot of complaints about roaches. This really made us a little nervous...can anyone give us some advice about these specific areas or if you know about a particular management company that we should avoid? We want to live in a safe neighborhood and avoid issues with management and pests.

I'm not sure if this is just one or two people's opinions and they wrote the reviews because they were true or they were just disgruntled.

If you know of an apartment complex that you or your family/friends really like living in near Mountain View/Sunnyvale area I would love to know. I don't know if you can write specific in the forum, so you can send me a PM.

Also do rents go up frequently and are they really at a high point right now or is this normal?

Is it safer to live on a 2nd or 3rd floor vs the 1st floor? I see most places don't have elevators.

any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Luke9686]

If you could give a price range I you may get some more detailed responses.

Also, this is very normal pricing wise. Actually, the median rent is significantly lower now than it was in 2000. It was just on the news. The average rent now is around $1600 I think they said. In 2000 it was over $2000 per month. Welcome to California.

I live in Cupertino and pay $1350 for a two bed, 1 1/2 bath townhome. Very nice area. I work near 101 and Fair Oaks, further toward Mountain View and it takes me about 20 minutes to get to work during rush hour.

[SMAD]

Thanks for the reply Luke9686.

The range we're looking in is 1500 - 1800 for a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment. We were looking in Sunnyvale because of it's proximity to Mountain View. I know we could probably get something cheaper the farther out we go. Maybe we should give Cupertino a look.

We're looking for apartments that have washers dryers in the unit and that ruled out a number of places for us. Our other criteria is a safe area, decent square footage and cost of rent. We like the complexes that have outdoor entrances to the apartments so we don't have to go down those dingy hallways to get to our place. We really don't want to have to climb stairs, but we noticed most places don't have elevators and so we figure we might have to be on a first floor. My only concern about that is safety and will there be more bugs. We don't see that many cockroaches in Minneapolis, MN.

Thanks!
SMAD

[Luke9686]

Those reports of muggings surprises me because virtually all of Mountain View and Sunnyvale are very safe areas. I would recommend www.craigslist.com. Click on "apts/housing" under the housing sectin. Then click on "south bay" and enter the name of the suburbs. Stuff will come up.

Here are a few that I pulled up:

Mountain View:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/323133790.html (broken link)
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/323049468.html (broken link)
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/322938963.html (broken link)
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/322940052.html (broken link)

Sunnyvale:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/323133407.html (broken link)
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/323121352.html (broken link)
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/322961478.html (broken link)
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/322916522.html (broken link)

Cupertino:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/323158178.html (broken link)
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/321713711.html (broken link)
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/321739406.html (broken link)
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/321128529.html (broken link) <---Single Fam House